MCGREEVEY ALLOWS NEEDLE EXCHANGES IN 3 CITIES FOR H.I.V. PREVENTION

NEWARK, Oct. 26 - Gov. James E. McGreevey signed an executive order on
Tuesday that aims to decrease the spread of AIDS by making it legal for
drug addicts in three cities to exchange their used syringes for new ones.

The order, issued under the governor's power to declare a health emergency,
authorized the Department of Health and Senior Services to oversee
needle-exchange programs in cities that meet specific guidelines.

Syringes were expected to be available in Camden and Atlantic City within
weeks; a third city has yet to qualify. The order, which some critics
immediately denounced, leaves Delaware the only state that both prohibits
such exchanges and criminalizes the possession or purchase of syringes
without a prescription.

"New Jersey has grappled with this issue for an extended period of time,"
the governor said at a news conference in Trenton. "We have been unable to
achieve consensus. The goal of the executive order is to demonstrate that
the science works and to move forward."

According to the New Jersey Department of Health, the rate of H.I.V.
infection among the state's estimated 28,000 injection drug users is above
the national average; 51 percent of the state's 64,219 H.I.V. infections
are related to injection drug use.

Mr. McGreevey cited statistics such as these to support his case that
H.I.V. in New Jersey has become an emergency. He also cited a study
determining that the prevalence of H.I.V. decreased 29 percent in cities
with needle-exchange programs while increasing by 5 percent in those
without such programs.

"The evidence is incontrovertible," he said. "We have resisted the evidence
at a high cost."

Critics questioned whether the governor's emergency designation was valid.
Two Republican state senators, Robert Singer and Thomas H. Kean, issued a
statement declaring that because there had been no recent change in the
state's AIDS situation, "the constitutionality of this executive order is
suspect."

Paul Loriquet, a spokesman for State Attorney General Peter C. Harvey, said
that Mr. Harvey had not been consulted in the order's drafting. "We will
review the order once we receive it," Mr. Loriquet said.

Kelley Heck, a spokeswoman for Senate President Richard J. Codey, the
Democrat who will take over as acting governor when Mr. McGreevey resigns
on Nov. 15, said he had not had a chance to review the order. "He said he
wants to take a look at it and work with the other legislative leaders,"
she said.

Senator Ronald Rice, a Democrat who helped quash a needle-exchange proposal
two weeks ago in a Senate Committee, said that he hoped a legal challenge
would arrive quickly.

"There is research saying that this will blow up if you hit the wrong key,"
he said, citing studies from several antidrug groups and the president's
Office of National Drug Control Policy. "You have to investigate and do
more research. But rather than do that, everything is on a fast track."

With the governor scheduled to resign, Senator Rice said, "he's shooting
out executive orders like he has a revolver with a lot of rounds left and
only three weeks to shoot them."

Officials in Camden and Atlantic City, however, praised the governor for
giving them the chance to carry out programs that they have been clamoring
for. The new order makes needle exchanges available to cities that have a
high incidence of H.I.V. infection from intravenous drug use and that have
passed ordinances establishing needle exchange programs. Both cities fit
the criteria. In June, Camden and Atlantic City passed ordinances to
establish needle-exchange programs, only to have them struck down by a
judge who ruled that the state's drug laws made them illegal.

Now, if the order stands, those cases will become irrelevant, along with
the more recent setback in the State Senate on Oct. 14.

"The governor is the only one who could have pulled the needle exchange
through because the committee couldn't get it passed," said Ali Sloan-El, a
Camden city councilman and a leading proponent of the exchange. "He's our
super sub; he subbed in and continued the fight."

The president of the City Council in Atlantic City, Craig Callaway, said
programs in other cities, like Philadelphia and New York City, had
successfully decreased the incidence of AIDS, and that New Jersey's was
long overdue.

"It will have an immediate positive impact because it will get some dirty
needles off the streets," he said. "It will keep some high-risk people from
exposing other people."

Dr. Clifton R. Lacy, the commissioner of the State Department of Health and
Senior Services, said in an interview that a syringe exchange was also
valuable because it would draw addicts toward treatment.

"It is a very effective gateway to engage drug users into health and social
services, and into drug treatment," he said. "Regular visits to these
syringe-exchange sites create an opportunity for referrals."

That view seemed to be supported by the scene on a cold damp morning last
week at a needle-exchange van in Philadelphia. Several addicts who visited
to pick up new needles also asked for help with treatment. One man, with a
gray beard and flannel shirt, said that the exchange "was a godsend" and "a
lifesaver."

And yet, not all supporters of needle exchanges seemed completely
satisfied. Senator Joseph Vitale, a sponsor of the Senate bill that died in
committee, said that the executive order was not a complete or politically
stable solution. Like all executive orders, the new rule can be rescinded
by a future governor, and it allows for needle exchanges in only three cities.

The Department of Health will start accepting applications after the formal
guidelines are written, but Dr. Lacy said that Camden and Atlantic City
already seemed to meet the relevant criteria, so only one slot would be
open. Newark and Jersey City are among the top five metropolitan areas with
the highest rates of AIDS cases related to injections.

"It's almost a two-edged sword," Senator Vitale. "In one way we're
addressing this issue in a few communities. But we're in a state where we
know the addiction problem is significant elsewhere. It may let the
Legislature off the hook in addressing this as a statewide crisis."